Think! 2014 July 21 - 27
July 31 OPERACY schools are involved with LITERACY and NUMERACY should also be involved with OPERACY which is the skill of operating or getting things done in the real world after leaving school almost as important as literacy and numeracy for traditional reasons based in the early medieval times education has tended to look down on business as money-grabbing, commercial and not concerned with the higher things in life upper classes in those days were not interested in business because their serfs and tenants provided the money and labor this is an absurd attitude in today's world in the UK today youngsters still leave school knowing the names of Henry VIII's wives and even the date of the Treaty of Utrecht at the same time they have no idea how the corner shop works or how the world of commerce operates DESIGN AND OPERACY DESIGN meaning: putting things together to achieve some effect whenever standard routine is not enough, we need "design" OPERACY about: action and the skill of thinking for action instead of thinking for description design is part of operacy design is the basis for action July 29 JUDGEMENT NOT DESIGN you can analyze the past but you have to design the future whole emphasis of intellectual culture and education is on judgment and analysis design is almost totally neglected DESIGN putting together what we have in order to deliver the values we want judgement seeks the truth and makes decision based on the past design seeks value and designs for the future this is not to attack or diminish the importance of judgment that would be absurd instead, insist upon on introducing more design into our thinking and our education judgment is concerned with "what is" design is concerned with "what could be" JUDGEMENT AND RECOGNITION (example about doctor diagnosing a child with measles) that is the model for 100% of education and 95% of daily thinking: 1. analyze the situation 2. identify the standard elements 3. apply the standard answers education and training is all about identifying the standard elements and knowing the standard answers JUDGEMENT with judgment you come to an idea and then you judge it you accept the idea or reject it for most parts of our life, judgement is essential and extremely useful judgement of recognition allows to make rapid use of past experience and also the experience of others judgement of assessment prevents us from making mistakes without judgment it would be difficult to exist therefore it is hardly surprising that we have put all the emphasis on truth and judgment THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS MODEL. It is very practical and effective. BUT, IT IS NOT ENOUGH. instead of accepting or rejecting an idea, look at the idea in order to "SEE WHERE YOU CAN MOVE TO" DOG EXERCISE MACHINE almost everyone else was trying to get the dog to exercise, to move this youngster was trying to prevent the dog from stopping the children weren't being led by what they knew - they were more creative in their approach to a problem using drawings helped July 28 EXAGGERATION exaggeration, upwards or downwards of any dimension must be an actual dimension Po, telephone calls can only last two minutes this suggests a compression technique so that you can talk at a normal speed but the transmitted message is compressed so as to occupy less of the line time exaggeration must be unreasonable otherwise it has little provocative effect Po, all voters have a hundred votes each this suggests that the votes are not just used at election time but can be used later to indicate approval or otherwise of the government if the votes for the opposition reached a certain threshold new elections would be called WISHFUL THINKING in the form of "wouldn't it be nice if..." Po, all telephone calls are friendly this suggests a green light on the phone you would give an extra digit on your phone number but only to your friends if one of them called, the green light would shine - but it wouldn't shine for other calls provocation must be more than just a desire "Po, the trains were always on time" would not be very provocative "Po, you got paid for waiting for a train" would be OTHER PROVOCATIONS there are many other ways of setting up provocations what is important: the provocation is meant to be a provocation never meant to be an idea in itself never meant to be just a desire for improvement the more unlikely a provocation seems, the more powerful it will be if you succeed in using that provocation there is little value in weak or feeble provocations they might seem easier to use but do not get you anywhere EXAMPLE "Po, you die before you die" sounds totally impossible and illogical but from it comes a powerful idea if the person insured gets a severe and probably terminal illness, insurance company pays out 75% of the death benefits this provides money for hospital care and other expenses other 25% of the benefits are paid on death this has been widely taken up in North America called Living Needs Benefits chnaged a concept that had been around for 123 years this example shows that even within traditional industry it is possible to create a powerful new idea that opens up new opportunities there was no need for Ron Barbaro to design a new idea there was not a real problem to solve but he is driven by creativity to develop new concepts and so open up opportunities MOVEMENT provocation is a basic way of getting movement basic operation that can be used anywhere in creativity other techniques: 1. Extract the Concept 2. Focus on the Difference 3. Positive Aspects 4. Moment to Moment 5. Special Circumstances 6. Random entry and movement EXTRACT THE CONCEPT what concept do we see operating here can we extract this concept and seek to use it where we need the new idea? FOCUS ON THE DIFFERENCE what are the points of difference between the provocation and the usual idea? can we spell out, pursue and build on those points of difference? even if provocation appears to be very similar to the present way of doing things can we make a conscious effort to explore the difference? POSITIVE ASPECTS are there any directly positive aspects of the provocation? what values are immediately present? can we use these where we want the new idea? in other words, when a value is turned up by the provocation we consider ways of achieving the value but in a more practical fashion MOMENT TO MOMENT imagine the provocation put into action, watch moment to moment what do we see happening? from that we develop new ideas this is how we work through the interesting concepts that comes from "Po, planes land upside down" SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES are there any special circumstances where the provocation would have direct value? the square wheels might have value if the ground was corrugated "Po, drinking glasses should have rounded bottoms" could have value if there were special holders for the glasses because everyone would need to use the special holders, polished furniture would not get white rings RANDOM ENTRY AND MOVEMENT say, when you leave home you always take the usual route into town one day on the outskirts of the town, your car breaks down and you have to walk home you ask around for the best walking route and find yourself arriving home by a road you would never have taken on leaving home in a patterning system of thinking, if you start at the periphery and move towards the center you will arrive there by a route different from the one you might have taken if you had started at the center no mystery about it at all TO USE RANDOM ENTRY, you can never select the starting point, because any selection would relate to your current thinking you have to use a random starting point simplest to use is a random word (nouns work best) you then work backwards from this point and develop new ideas e.g: sofa + queen = sofa bed SUMMARY: THE FORMAL TOOLS OF LATERAL THINKING reason why creativity (idea creativity) has remained a mystery and reason why we have never developed these practical and formal tools for generating ideas is that the word games of philosophy could never understand the asymmetric patterning behavior of a self-organizing information system like the human brain NEW IDEAS essential part of thinking in every culture needed for problem solving, design, invention and _simplifying things_ needed for conflict resolution and _designing the way forward_ relying on chance for new ideas is not very effective and not a sensible policy at all we need tools and a structure as a key now that edward de bono has provided such tools - which have been tested over many years - there is the need for the _will_ to use them July 23 WAYS OF SETTING UP PROVOCATIONS 1. Arising 2. Escape 3. Reversal 4. Distortion 5. Exaggeration 6. Wishful thinking 7. Others PROVOCATION most important point to keep in mind: that it is not a half idea or on the way to a possible idea provocation is related to the existing situation once you have it, then you can use it for its movement value ARISING remark that arises in the course of a discussion or a brainstorming session can be deliberately used as provocation not "judgement of that remark" but "addition to judgment" ESCAPE easiest to use pick something usually taken for granted in a situation then drop that thing or "escape" from it example: if we take for granted that watchdogs bark, we set up: "Po, watchdogs do not bark" from this develops the idea of training a dog to press with its paw a button that activates all alarm systems, alerts the police and set off a tape recorder with a barking dog sound "Po, restaurants have no chairs" Using "moment to moment" movement we see people standing around and eating They spend less time in the restaurant from this comes the idea of charging by time as well as by the food eaten REVERSAL take a normal relationship and reverse it filters are there to remove some of the tar in cigarettes "Po, we add something instead of removing it" what could we add? we could add air with a tiny pinhole so that when you draw in smoke you dilute it with air this reduces the rate at which the harmful particles are deposited in the lungs this is concentration related since it is an aerosol DISTORTION change in a sequence or change in relationships normally you pick up the phone, dial the number and speak "Po, you speak before you dial" this can lead to 2 ideas: 1. voice-activated dialling 2. build a simple tape recorder into the phone if you are using the phone to make a complaint or to order something you can rehearse what you are going to say and say it into the recorder then you dial the number and, at the right moment, play the recording this way you get your message right July 22 PROVOCATION needed in any self-organizing system without it system gets stuck in a local equilibrium TRADITIONAL THINKING makes use of judgment with judgment you come to an idea and then you judge it you accept the idea or you reject it for most parts of life judgment is essential and extremely useful judgment of recongnition: make rapid use of past experience of self and others judgment of assessment: prevents making mistakes without judgment, it would be difficult to exist therefore not surprising that brain is a judgment machine nor that philosophers put emphasis on truth or judgment LATERAL THINKING require operation different from judgment instead of accepting or rejecting an idea, you look at the idea in order to "see where you can move to" one of its techniques is to set up provocations PROVOCATION has everything to do with experiments in the mind (recall thought experiments) allows to make a statement that does not make sense, may contradict experience and may be totally illogical instead of sitting and waiting for ideas, provides a means by which the mind can be unsettled in order to increase chances of having a new idea must lie outside normal experience provides a stepping stone which can be used to get across to the separate track - to point C po signal word which indicates a provocation (P)rovocative (O)peration related to POssible, hyPOthesis, POse, POtential, etc MOVEMENT mental operation used to move forward from the provocation to a new idea general sense: willingness to move forwards in a positive exploring way rather than stopping to judge whether something is right or wrong can be used to move forward from a weak idea to a stronger one can be used to move forward from a suggestion to a concrete idea can be used to move forward from a concept to an idea ways to carry out movement: 1. extract a concept, then work with this 2. focus on the difference between the provocation and the usual situation 3. pick out positive aspects then work with these 4. imagine the provocation put into action and see what happens examples: Po, cars should have square wheels Po, planes land upside down LOGIC OF PROVOCATION mathematicians fully understand the need for provocation self-organising systems tend to settle down in a stable equilibrium called a local equilibirum they remain in that state until provocation moves them towards a more global equilibrium in a way the mind also settles into a stable local equilibirum provocation is needed to move it into a more global equilibrium ANNEALING a process from making steel steel crystals lock into a position that is stable but not very strong so you provoke them with heat again and they lock into a stronger position and so on